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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Do people walk to the left in England?
Message-ID: <486@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Nov-83 12:39:44 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.486
Posted: Thu Nov 17 12:39:44 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 17-Nov-83 13:28:11 EST
References: <605@cbosgd.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
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People in counter-walking crowds in England walk on whichever
side the sign tells them not to. Since most signs (where there
are any) say "Keep Left", or "Walk Left", therefore most people
walk on the right. It's a feature of freedom from Government
interference.

More seriously, at a time when there were more countries with
left-side driving, I saw a study on accident rates in which
traffic density etc. had been partialled out of the analysis.
Those countries with driving on the left had less traffic
accidents than those with driving on the right. I have never
seen a follow-up study, but it might be reasonable considering
the difference in functional style of the two brain hemispheres.
The contervailing traffic might be more ruly in its behaviour
than the surprises that come from off the road. If so, it is
not too great a stretch of the imagination to guess that a
skilled driver might react quicker to an unexpected event seen
on the left (right brain) than on the right.

I know that's pushing our knowledge a long way past defensible
bounds, but it's worth a thought.

Martin Taylor